Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Lighter
Date: 18 Sep 16 - 10:14 AM

Thanks for posting this information, Richard.

Could you post the original lyrics?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,Richard Cheltenham
Date: 18 Sep 16 - 08:25 AM

Quartermasters Store,was written by my father in law,Bertram Bert Read in the 1930s when he was the pianist and arranger for the Ambrose Big Band,he subsequently went on to become a producer for the B.B.C.Then the last director of radio Malaya before independence,after which he moved to Australia as a director of the A.B.C. Radio he was made an O.B.E.for service to radio and died in retirement on Malta.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Lighter
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 12:22 PM

The earliest printed reference to the army song I've seen appears to be that in the journal "Our Time" in 1941.

Had it been sung in 1914-18, I would expect there to be earlier evidence for it.

Is there?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Lighter
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 12:07 PM

Anon., "The Consumptive Maiden," in "The Universalist and Ladies' Repository" (1837), p. 66:

"My eyes are dim, I cannot see,
A heavy weight is on my heart;
O is this death: O can it be?
Come, kiss me, mother, ere we part!"

Anon., "The King of Bohemia," in "Sharpe's London Journal" (1849), p.156:

"Lead on! Lead on! mine eyes are dim,
I cannot see the lances gleam;
But I can hear the battle-hymn,
The tramp of horse, the war-fife's scream."

And most to the point, from "Unity" (Chicago)(March 1, 1884), p. 20:

"A Scotch minister, forgetting his spectacles,could not read the hymn; so he said, 'My eyes are dim, I cannot see.' The precentor immediately sang, 'My eyes are deem! I caw-noot see!' The minister explained, 'I spoke of my infirmity.' This was sung as the second line. The minister pleaded, 'I merely said my eyes were dim.' These words were sung, and he sat down saying, 'I did not mean to sing a hymn.' When this line was sung the services closed."

This seems to have been a fairly well-known story on both sides of the Atlantic for the next 30 or 40 years.

So in a way, these lines do come from a "hymn."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 17 Dec 14 - 05:07 AM

The verses and the chorus appear to have different origins. But they have proved to be a successful combination.

The sources of the words and the tune of the chorus continue to be elusive.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Lighter
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 03:30 PM

"My eyes are dim, I cannot see," sounds like a line from some maudlin Victorian death ballad.

Then it's made ridiculous by the explanation, "I have not brought my specs." Folklorists call this "humor."

Allusion to poverty, NHS, and/or British Army: IMO, zilch.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 02:16 PM

The National Health Service was introduced on July 5 1948.

"The period 1948-1951 was a golden age for the ophthalmic opticians. New patients were presenting themselves from all directions and the cost could be claimed from the State by filling in a few forms.

"Displays of 'Standard Spectacles' like those produced by M. Wiseman & Co. Ltd in 1949 were hung on practice walls to publicise the availability of free and state-subsidised frames for all. There were ten free styles of frame and seven which could be chosen for payment of an additional fee."

The College of Optometrists

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 12:32 PM

Back then, there was no NHS and many people who needed glasses couldn't afford them - so when they were called up, they had to be issued them. Being it was the Army, they took what they were given, which wasn't usually what they needed, but was as close as the QM could get. And sometimes, that wasn't exactly much help.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 05:33 AM

What is this business about the specs? It is a line that does not seem to fit the theme of the song which is basically a bit of ranting about the Quartermasters (and their food).

Could it be possible that the chorus was inherited from some earlier lyrics?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Mo the caller
Date: 24 Oct 14 - 07:16 PM

It was definitely a 'coach song', back in the 50s when fewer people had cars so there were coach outings, and school trips. And we made up verses about people. Like the other song 'You'll never get to heaven' - which has it's own thread somewhere.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 24 Oct 14 - 09:08 AM

To add to my hasty post above:

Some background: I first heard this song from my father in the late 1940s. He and my mother and their friends used to sing it on ski trips starting in the 1940s. They stayed in boardinghouses (motels then nearly unknown) around Mt. Mansfield, Stowe, NH, one of the best early ski resorts. Relatively few people skiied in those days—it was before the ski boom of the 60s and 70s—and there was a tradition of loud boisterous group singing in the evenings with drinks of various sorts including hot buttered rum and so on.

So, for them, Quartermaster's Store was a "ski song."

Rooting around, I found a version, the fullest (and second oldest) I know, given me by Adrian Chabot during basic training at Fort Dix, NJ in 1960. Some interesting variations:

QUARTERMASTER"S STORE

There are beans ... with snappers on their jeans ...
Goons ... lined up in platoons ...
Eggs ... with little bandy legs ...
Lice ... eating up the mice
Cats ... in bowler hats and spats
Rats ... as big as alley cats
Fleas ... with dimples in their knees
Ants ... with people in their pants
Beer ... that makes you feel so queer
There are beds ... all laid out for the dead
There is rye ... that makes you want to die
There are whores ... lying on the floors
There are broads ... all lined up in squads
There is cheese ... that brings you to your knees

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 22 Oct 14 - 03:58 AM

There was Joe, Joe, Sitting on the po

is one I happen to remember. From Kings Cliffe Youth Hostel, Northamptonshire, Xmas week 1947.

Why does one remember things like that so clearly, while forgetting so much that's important?

Think I'll start a new thread about that.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 22 Oct 14 - 12:46 AM

At youth camps &c which I went to waybackwhen, we would invariably go off the stock like cheese, bread &c, & items of clothing like shirts, sox,

to the people present; so that, in my case, you would get "There was Mike, Mike [Anything you like]"... "There was Dave Dave In the middle of a rave"...

Didn't everyone mix in those sorts of verses too?

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 21 Oct 14 - 08:21 PM

From my father, c. 1950, variants on the above which I rather like:

There are eggs ... with little bandy legs,

There are beans ... that make you fill your jeans

There is bread ... makes you wish that you were dead

plus beer/want to cheer, whiskey/frisky and many more which I forget.

And (in the US) it's usually Quartermaster's *Store* (singular),
and further back in WWI history (its era of origin, I believe, though at a guess one or two verses may spring from the Spanish-American War), it's Quartermaster's *Corps.*

There are few versions now that aren't infiltrated with oodles of verses made up on the spot at children's camp 1970s and later. Which is fine, but it does make it more difficult to winnow out earlier versions. Ah, the folk process. Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 20 Oct 14 - 08:05 PM

Quatermass (and the Pit?) - absolutely terrifying in its day - -   can't remember if I was still at Primary school or maybe just started Secondary?
Don't think it was supposed to be watched by children- - - saw some episodes on an obscure tv channel not so long ago, it looks so tame and clunky now! Guess we have more active imaginations 'way back then.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 20 Oct 14 - 06:43 PM

It's a British WW2 song; the verse is a parody of the hymn "There is Power in the Blood";

There is power, power, Wonder working power,
In the blood, Of the Lamb!
There is power, power, Wonder working power,
In the precious blood of the Lamb.

The text and tune were both written Lewis Edgar Jones at a camp meeting at Mountain Lake Park, MD. It was first printed in Songs of Praise and Victory, compiled at Philadelphia, PA, in 1899 for the Pepper Publishing Co. by Gilmour and William James Kirkpatrick. (Source; Hymn of the Day)

The Shadows had all played in skiffle groups. Hank B Marvin and Bruce Welch had been in a skiffle group at school, while Jet Harris and Tony Meehan had played in The Vipers. Quatermasster's Stores became the B side of Apache by The Shadows. Norrie Paramor had wanted it to be the A side, but his daughters preferred Apache. The record was released in July 1960 - and The Shadows became an instrumental group.

Does anyone remember Quatermass?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 20 Oct 14 - 08:14 AM

The stores of the South London CCF Battalion I ended up as RQMS of in the late 60s included a boxful of WWI uniforms we shipped off to Richard Attenborough for the filming of Oh What a Lovely War... that's how little idea my predecessors had of what was in there.

Wasn't just foodstuffs though -
Pots - black as lava rocks
Forms - buzzing round in swarms
Spats - stank like alley cats
Boots - underneath(?) the roots
come to mind - but it was forty years ago!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,Bmore joe
Date: 19 Oct 14 - 08:24 PM

but any clue as to origin? The chorus is pretty distinctive. Or any ideas where to research? My family has been singing this forever. Forever being the past 80 years anyhow.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,Rebecca
Date: 15 Nov 13 - 12:05 PM

We were taught this song in school, along with many other popular WWII songs, to sing on Liberation Day. It was a favourite because it made us laugh. We also sang the chorus- my eyes are dim, I cannot see, I have not brought my specs with me, etc.

The lines I remember best were buns, buns, bullets for the guns and cats, cats, big as bloomin' (better alternative for youngsters than bloody) cats.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,Hamish
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 08:26 AM

II remember singing this on bushwalking trips in Melbourne, Australia in the late 1960's. However we often used to sing "In the Paddy Pallin store" instead of "in the Quatermaster's store". Paddy Pallin was a bushwalker who established a well known business in Australia making and selling bushwalking gear including, rucksacks, tents etc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,gecko
Date: 19 Aug 12 - 02:53 AM

I remember singing this song on school outings in southern England in the early 1950s, in the coach coming home. The first part was always about each girl in turn--improvised lyrics such as (I'm just making these up): "There was Mary, Mary, acting quite contrary, in the stores . . ." They were (I think) rather silly and sometimes a bit vulgar. Chorus was: "My eyes are dim, I cannot see, I have not brought my specs with me . . ." And half the girls sang descant on the repeat of the last line.

Thank you for all the amusing lyrics; made our versions seem rather tame now.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: sisywisy
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 06:25 PM

sisywisy
There were snakes, snakes big as garden rakes
.
.
.
There were rats, rats big as alley cats

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Jack Campin
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 06:58 AM

The tune for "The Quartermaster's Store" is the second part of the Pathan War March, "Zachmi Dil"("The Wounded Heart"), used by pipe bands in the British Army since they learned it from the Afghans in 1880 (the song was in pidgin Hindustani, not Pushtu).. The tune is printed in _Cabar Feidh_, the regimental tunebook of the Seaforths and Camerons.

But. That march is two unrelated tunes glued together (the first in 6/8, the second in 2/4), and maybe the gluing took place long after the first tune was adopted. I haven't yet looked at 19th century cources for it. It seems that "Power in the Blood" dates from 1899, well after that Afghan campaign song. The fragmentary words Lewis Winstock quotes in _Songs and Music of the Redcoats_ for "Zachmi dil" are for the 2/4 part, though:

There's a boy across the river with a bottom like a peach
Alas, I cannot swim.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 05:21 AM

The first verse I ever heard for this song, from my father about 1935-6 (he would always sing while I watched him shaving & this was one of those songs, along with "When I am dead don't bury me at all, Just pickle my bones in alcohol", "She sat in a veranda & played her guitar", "Riding up from Bangor" &c &c), was "There was cheese, cheese, Hairy as your knees" ~~ so no more green as peas, mouldy rotten cheese, or any such, please. "Hairy as your knees" it has to be!

♥♫❤Michael❤♫♥

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,cchilvers
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 04:28 AM

I remember this song from my childhood, it was in a book along with some other creepy songs!
I remember eggs running round with legs,
Jelly sliding on its belly,
Cheese crawling on its knees,
Rats wearing hats?
And me and my sister would make up a lot ourselves,
Lions holding great big irons!
I'm so pleased this has been refreshed in my mind!
X

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle
Date: 06 Mar 08 - 08:53 AM

Sorry. Last one was mine. Why can't one of the tame nerds fix this so you can't sent anything without filling in the From box?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Mar 08 - 08:51 AM

Joe Offer's list from Palmer's book makes it sound as though this is a composite like Muttley's, but it is in fact entirely from a single version - that of Gordon Hall. There is a recording of it on Veteran Tapes VT121 if you can lay your hands on one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Rog Peek
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 06:00 PM

A verse we always sang which I've not seen here:

There was butter, butter,
Floating in the gutter

In the stores.............

Rog

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,geribuni
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 11:57 AM

I knew a song with "my eyes are dim, I cannot see, I have not brought my specs with me"   and then "there are ants, ants, ants, ants, ants with purple pants at the store, at the store, there are ants, ants, ants, ants, with purple pants at the corner master, corner master store.

is this the same song with bees with dirty knees, girls with lots of curls, and boys with lots of toys?   the curiosity is killing me and I am looking for additional stanzas

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: The Walrus
Date: 12 Nov 06 - 04:00 AM

Muttley,

May I be a little pedantic and correct one or two minor points

"...The French referred to them [The Germans] as 'Le Bosche',: The term the Brits later turned into "The Bosch" in WW2..."
The British soldier adopted 'Bosche' in the Great War (along with 'Allyman' and 'Fritz')

"...However, the MOST common term for the Germans among the British troops (which included the Indians, Sth Africans, New Zealanders and Australians - the Canadians, surprisingly, fought as Canadians. under their own flag) was simply "Jerry" (or Gerry) which later became 'The Jerries'..."
'Jerry'/'Gerry' appears late in the War, there are two scolls of thought as to its origin, one, that it is a contraction of "German" , a second is that it comes from the German stahlhelm of 1916, which. from its depth and general shape was thought by some to resemble an upturned chamber pot or "Jerry".
As it happens, I have never come across an Indian account of the Great War which refers to 'Jerries'+. After the early stages of the War, the majority of the Indian Divisions seem to have been used in the fight against the Turks.

"...AS Gallipoli began in April 1915, NO Digger heading to that battlefield was issued a helmet - or 'Tin Hat'. The only Tin Hats worn at Gallipoli were worn by the English troops and some Turks - even most of the Turks had cloth ones...".
'Fraid not. There were no steel helmets worn during the Gallipoli campaign. The British steel helmet (or 'Brodie Helmet') wasn't introduced into service until well after the troopps were withdrawn from the Gallipoli campaign and then only as "Trench Stores"*, not becoming 'general issue' until early 1916 (the first major action involving the steel helmet was the Battle of the Somme).
The only helmets worn by the Allies** at Gallipoli were Pith helmets.

Walrus

+ That's not to say there aren't any, just that I've never seen one
* Passed from outgoing troops to incomers, handed over with the trenches and accounted for along with grenades, wire etc.
** British, ANZAC, Newfoundlander, Gurkha, Indian and French (I can't remember if the South Africans were involved or whether they went straight to France).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Muttley
Date: 12 Nov 06 - 12:41 AM

Well Done Azizi: I too meant to compliment the young lady in question and her teacher. Plaease accept my expressions of being impressed.

In relation to the term "Tommy Gun"; referring to the automatic weapon, or sub-machine gun (meaning of course that it could be fired from the waist or shoulder as opposed to being tripod-mounted as a "true' machine gun would be)with the 'drum magazine mounted beneath the barrel.

The "Tommy" in this case refers not to the British Servicemen, or "Tommies" but instead to the inventor of the weapon. The actual name for the weapon was the THOMPSON Automatic Rifle - usually referred to as the Thompson machine / sub-machine gun: or in the vernacular - - - the 'Tommy Gun'!

Tommy being derived from Thompson

Muttley

PS - Liz - - - - What DO the Scots refer to handbags as? Maybe it's a term I have forgotten over the years.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Azizi
Date: 11 Nov 06 - 10:30 PM

I meant to also say thanks, GUEST,Ellie aged 10 for posting the version of The Quartermaster's Stores that you learned in school.

I like the idea of using songs to help children and adults learn about history.

Also, Ellie, please give my compliments to your teacher!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Azizi
Date: 11 Nov 06 - 10:13 PM

I regret that I didn't know this song as a child and only heard the Quartermaster's Stores song in a children's CD long after my children were in adults.

I apologize for this off topic question, but I'm wondering if the source of the phrase "tommy gun" is the referent used by the Germans for British troops as described in Muttley's post on 10 Nov 06 - 05:53 AM:

"Just as the German term for British troops - and that included the Canadians as well (we all - Aussies, Canadians, Sth Africans, Poms etc - wore the same helmets - well after late 1915 we did anyway; up until then the Aussies ONLY wore the 'Slouch Hat'**)was "Tommy".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 11 Nov 06 - 12:42 PM

The Scots have always had strange names for things... look what they call handbags...

LTS
(Ducking and running for cover again!)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Muttley
Date: 11 Nov 06 - 11:32 AM

Latrine! Of Course! The hideous creature that lives in the North Tower and performs magic for me!

OOPS! Sorry: that was a paraphrase / quote from "Robin Hood: Men In Tights"

I knew there was a term escaping me. As you've workes in a military museum, I shall have to bow to your knowledge. However, my own dad tends to call "the smallest room" the "Lav" and he picked up the term from his dad who adopted the saying after 3 and a half years (almost full time) on the Western Front where he was stationed with the 'KIngs Own Scottish Borderers'; be fore that, apparently he and his brothers (who all served in WW1 in various Scottish Regiments) all used to refer to the toilet as "The Wee Hoose" (no puns intended). However, after the war, the six that survived all universally called it "The Lav" or "The Lavvie".

I'm not 100% on this next bit, but I have an itch in my 'memory gland' that latrine is actually also etymologically linked with lavatory as well. Not sure here though.

Oh, and BTW - my grandad wasn't the non-survivor of the Great War; Not sure which one of his brothers it was - he was, however gassed 3 times which left his lungs and heart a mess and ultimately killed him in 1960 at age 62. Not bad for a man whose wife was told "don't marry this man - he won't live beyond 30" by the doctors. The family always said it was Granny's nursing and care that kept him alive tose extra 32 years. He also had one brother who was badly gassed (once) and died younger than the others as well - the other four brothers all lived well into their nineties.

Muttley

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 Nov 06 - 09:14 PM

Beg to differ on the ORs use of water closet... I used to work in a Military museum so read an awful lot of accounts of both WWs - lavatory was hardly used at all, it was either WC or latrine - the difference being one was an actual toilet and the other a hole in the ground with a grab bar and tent (if you were lucky).

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Lighter
Date: 10 Nov 06 - 08:19 AM

Thanks, Muttley. That uniquely nostalgic version of "inky-pinky" seems to be fairly well known in Australia. I wonder who wrote it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Muttley
Date: 10 Nov 06 - 05:53 AM

Quite right Liz -

the Huns were indeed the Germans and the term does indeed stem from the British (and Aussie) trenches of World War 1.

The French referred to them as 'Le Bosche',: The term the Brits later turned into "The Bosch" in WW2.

However, the MOST common term for the Germans among the British troops (which included the Indians, Sth Africans, New Zealanders and Australians - the Canadians, surprisingly, fought as Canadians. under their own flag)was simply "Jerry" (or Gerry) which later became 'The Jerries'.

Just as the German term for British troops - and that included the Canadians as well (we all - Aussies, Canadians, Sth Africans, Poms etc - wore the same helmets - well after late 1915 we did anyway; up until then the Aussies ONLY wore the 'Slouch Hat'**)was "Tommy"

If you noticed the ** in the above brackets - this is a signpost. The fact that the Aussies only wore the brown felt hat into battle until late 1915 makes the classic Eric Bogle song "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" historically incorrect.

At the close of the first verse the old Digger sings "So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun / And they sent me away to the war."

AS Gallipoli began in April 1915, NO Digger heading to that battlefield was issued a helmet - or 'Tin Hat'. The only Tin Hats worn at Gallipoli were worn by the English troops and some Turks - even most of the Turks had cloth ones.

However, Liz, I must correct you on one point.

True 'Lavare' is, indeed the Latin for 'to wash' and thus gave rise to the term lavatory - as a means of "washing away the waste products / body waste".

The commoners used the term lavatory (as a polite, 'politically correct' or 'in company' term while WC was the term utilised by the upper classes as defined by correct etiquette. WC was the abbreviation for Water Closet: a facility VERY few common homes possessed until the Twentieth Century - most homes had a 'thunderbox' out in the back yard and close to the fence abutting an alley, preferably and the waste was actually collected by a 'Nightsoil Collector' on a cart once a week.

Here endeth the grammar and history lessons Guess what I teach?!!

Muttley

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 Nov 06 - 04:28 AM

My dad taught me the Quartermasters Stores using the refrain:

My eyes are dim I cannot see, I left my specs in the W C...

WC (water closet) was a more suitable term for toilet than lavatory - one that lower ranks were more likely to know. Besides (pedant alert) a lavatory is a sink for washing in from lavare - to wash. To lose ones specs in the toilet would be far more amusing as it suggests that they may have been 'flushed'...

To shoot buns at the Huns suggests a WWI origin, the usage being common after a speech given by Kaiser Wilhelm I (Queen Victoria's grandson) in July 1901 during the Boxer rebellion. He likened his campaign to those of Attila the Hun (4th Century ->) where Germans would once again rule the land...

Don't worry, I'll be back on the medication soon!

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Muttley
Date: 09 Nov 06 - 11:32 PM

G'day 'Lighter'

Following is the version I learned om those drives in the country with my Nana. She loved the old wartime songs. "Madamoiselle", "Over There", "Kiss Me Goodnight, Sergeant-Major", "The Quaretermaster's Store", "One of Our Planes is Missing", and so on Hell, I'm feeling very teary and nostalgic right now.
I remember sitting up in the back of Nan & Pop's 1965 Holden HD going to Healesville to see Pop's family on their farm and singing all these old songs. I ended up inheriting the old HD (Dad bought it for me) and she sadly got traded in after several years of service - more than once I've wished I'd kept her.

As for Nana & Pop, they're now 'Gone to God' as well

I was mistaken about the 'rollicking version', it was the song I was singing and it was a SLOWER rendition that was plucking at my memories.
I have included the "slow' verse at the very end as I'm uncertain as to where it goes or whether it was a song in its own right: However, my recollections are hinting that it may have been a slow "opening" verse to the rest of the song. Sort of like the opening to "One of our Planes is Missing": It starts slow and then bounces into the rest of the song as "the word" comes through from the missing plane.

Anyway - here's the song as I have it:


MADEMOISELLE FROM ARMENTIERES

Mademoiselle from Armentieres, parlez-vous

Sang the Diggers between their beers, parlez-vous

And the ballad roared by the soldiers gay,

    Rang through the old Estaminet

                "Inky-pinky, parlez-vous!"

Mademoiselle enjoyed the din, parlez-vous!


As she tripped around with the bock and vin, parlez-vous!

And Mademoiselle, in a manner gay,

    Trolled a stave of the ribald lay

                "Inky-pinky, parlez-vousl"

There were men from Wagga and Gundagai, parlez-vous!

From Perth, and The Towers, and Boggabri, parlez-vous

From Sydney City and Dandenong,

    Sinking their troubles in wine and song

                Inky-pinky, parlez-vous!

There was one   young Digger, tanned and lean, parlez-vous!

From the Darling Downs, or the Riverine, parlez-vous!

Who set her heart in a rapturous whirl

    When he vowed that she was his Dinkum Girl

                Inky-pinky, parlez-vous!

They laughed and loved in the old French town; parlez-vous!

And her heart spake out of her eyes of brown; parlez-vous!

But the time fled by, and there came a day

    When he and his cobbers all marched away

                Inky-pinky, parlez -vous

Maybe on a field of France he fell; parlez-vous!

No word came back to Mademoiselle; parlez-vous!

But a pretty French girl, with eyes of brown,

    Prays for him still in a war-swept town,

                Inky-pinky, parlez-vous!


Quiet it is in the old estaminet; parlez-vous!

No more Diggers will come that way, parlez-vous!

May your heart grow light with passing years,

    Oh, Mademoiselle from Armentieres!

                Inky-pinky, parlez-vous!


This is the "slow" verse which is most likely a slow 'opening' verse for the song - sort of a reminiscence: I am unsure, but I suspect, as "Madamoiselle" was a WW1 song, the "If you see a grey-haired lady etc" may have been added during WW2 when many of the older sons of the men who fought in France in WW1 were going off to war again.

The Slow Verse:


If you should see a grey-haired lady, who says: "How's your father?"

   That's Madamoiselle

If she says: "Parlez-vous? Won't you tell me, do;

   How is he after all these years?"

If she says no other than: "Don't tell your mother!"

   That's Madamoiselle from Armientieres!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Muttley
Date: 09 Nov 06 - 10:19 PM

I have a version of it in my files - i'll look it up and get back to you. There was a more 'rolicking verion' I cannot for the life of me recall; though it may have been a "chorus" - - - I'll think on't.

As for names, they were a fairly common base for verses - but usually only after all other material had been used up. They were also the 'meat and potatoes' for verses at camps - scouts etc (provided they weren't offensive: Hmmmm the beginnings of 'political correctness?')

Mutt

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Lighter
Date: 09 Nov 06 - 10:50 AM

Thanks for that, Muttley. The use of pleople's names in the song is not common.

Did you learn any WW I or II verses of "Inky-dinky parlez-vous?" I'm trying to collect as many as possible from oral (not printed)tradition.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Muttley
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 10:49 PM

My grandmother used to teach me songs handed down to her from her dad and uncles who were in World War One and cousins and brothers and husbands from World war 2 and my Mum picked up songs from my dad and grandad on his side who were in WW2 and WW1 respectively and they all sang this song and added to and subtracted from it as circumstance, which service you were in, and the war concerned; dictated.

I recall many of the verses and have gonbe through and collated all the ones I recall from all those offered.

Generally, the song referred to food, drink, equipment and people and frequently ranks as the four main topics to spoof as part of the versing and most frequently, the songs were improvised at each singing and thus any 'canonical' list of verses is simply a collection of some of the more popular ones. The song altered from singing to singing, from camp to camp from front to front from base tp ship to airfield and from war to war and so on.

So here's the 'popular' list I compiled from above and recall:

The Quartermaster Stores

There was ham, ham, mixed up with the jam,
in the stores, in the stores.
There was ham, ham, mixed up with the jam,
In the quartermaster stores.

(Chorus)
My eyes are dim, I cannot see,
I have not brought my specs with me,
I have not brought my specs with me.

Eggs ... running round on legs.
Flour . . . but only for an hour,
Cheese . . . green as garden peas.
Bread . . . heavy as lumps of lead.
Cheese . . . rotting, stinking cheese
Buns . . . for firing at the huns
Meat . . . soled your boots a treat.
Cake . . . you couldn't break
Gravy . . . enough to sink the navy
Beans . . . as big as submarines
   Beans . . . that make fill your jeans...
Fish . . . lying in a dish,
Chips . . . as big as battleships
Tea . . . but not for you and me
Beer . . . makes you feel so queer.
Port... turns a prude into a sport.
Whisky. .. makes you feel so frisky.
Gin . . . that brings a girl to sin.
Brandy . . . makes you feel so randy.
Lice . . . living on the mice.
Rats . . . big as bloody cats.
Rats . . . in bowler hats and spats
Bugs . .. big as deep-sea tugs.
Flies . . . feeding on the pies
Mice . . . trying to catch the lice.
Fleas . . . all with housemaid's knees.
Slugs . .. drinking from army mugs.
Chief . . . who never brings us beef
Lance* . . . cannae find his pants
Corp . . . never been to war
Sarge . . . big as bloody barge
Captain** . . . He never saw no action
Phil .. . fiddling the till.
Bob .. . playing with his knob.
Frank ... having a Midland Bank.
Hall ... he's only got one ball.
Brown .. . with his knackers hanging down.

(Chorus - final)
My eyes are dim, I cannot see,
I have not brought my specs with me,
I left them in the la – va - try

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Gurney
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 09:09 PM

Beans.... to make you FILL your jeans.
Gravy.... REJECTED by the Navy.

and many of the above.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Joe_F
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 08:57 PM

The version that goes thru the various drinks (Oh, it's tea, tea, tea, That makes you want to pee, etc.) was sung in my highschool (early 1950s) & college. George Orwell remembered "rats as big as cats" from the Spanish Civil War; I dare say it goes back to W.W. I or earlier.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,Ellie aged 10
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 01:38 PM

We are learning about The Second World War at school and we learnt this song:

There were rats rats,
Big as pussy cats,
In the store,
In the store,
There were rats rats,
Big as pussy cats,
In the store,
In the Quarter Master's store.

My eyes are dim I can not see,
I have not bought my specs with me,
I have not bought my specs with me.

There were eggs eggs,
That taste like plastic pegs,
In the store,
In the store,
There were eggs eggs,
That taste like plastic pegs,
In the store,
In the Quarter Master's store.


My eyes are dim I can not see,
I have not bought my specs with me,
I have not bought my specs with me.

There was fish fish,
lying in a dish,
in the store,
In the store.
There was fish fish,
lying in a dish,
in the store,
In the Quarter Master's store.

My eyes are dim I can not see,
I have not bought my specs with me,
I have not bought my specs with me.

There was tea tea,
but not for you and me,
in the store,
in the store.
There was tea tea,
but not for you and me,
in the store,
in the Quarter Master's store.


My eyes are dim I can not see,
I have not bought my specs with me,
I have not bought my specs with me.

There was flour flour,
but only for an hour,
in the store,
in the store.
There was flour flour,
but only for an hour,
in the store,
in the Quarter Master's store.

My eyes are dim I can not see,
I have not bought my specs with me,
I have not bought my specs with me.

From Ellie aged 10. From England.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,Lucky
Date: 07 Aug 06 - 06:34 PM

my eyes are dim i cannot see i've been in the pub since half past 3
Ive been in the pub since half past 3

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,CB
Date: 27 Apr 06 - 02:11 PM

There were rats, rats,
As big as pussy cats,
In the store, in the store,
There were rats, rats,
As big as pussy cats,
in the Quartermaster's Store.

My eyes are dim,
I cannot see,
I have not brought my specs with me,
I have not brought my specs with me.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Aug 05 - 12:23 AM

sian, west wales, I am well along in years, but my memory is pretty good for some things, not completely Alzhammered! I would guess WW1 as well. As kids I am sure that we sang verses in the 1930s.
The hymn itself was often heard in the Depression days of the 30s. There was a soup kitchen variant which I vaguely remember. Our parents would not let us go to the parts of town where the Okies could be found on the move, detoured around the town center by police. We were warned away with stories about these people, but that only encouraged some of the bravest, so we saw a little of them.

There were worms, worms, worms in the bread,
In the bread, in the bread,
There were worms, worms, worms in the bread
Where they fed us (on the street ?).
I can't remember any more.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: greg stephens
Date: 03 Aug 05 - 05:45 PM

Well, I am working on a community arts project at the Hollybush Community Centre, Stoke-on-trent, and today we were singing this very song with the kids making their own verses. We are working towards a street party to celebrate 60 years since the end of WWII, and the preparation involves teaching the little ones the songs of the old timers. So the Quartermaster's Stores lives on.
   The predictability of rhymes makes the kids efforts much the same as those of 60 years ago.
Peas peas
Smudging on your knees

Beans beans
Dropping on your jeans

Chips chips
Sticking to your lips.

Mash mash
Giving you a rash

(continuity of culture!)